


Panzer

by Warpony



Series: Feral Echoes [27]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Caleb Widogast-centric, Dungeon Crawl, Gen, M/M, Self-Doubt, Situational Mutism, Strength, storyteller - Freeform, swords and daggers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:27:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25790593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Warpony/pseuds/Warpony
Summary: "How do you continue?" The mage managed to mumble, face flushing just a bit and feeling a little foolish. He'd have to blame exhaustion and lightheadedness later for anything he asked in the next few hours.
Relationships: Verin Thelyss/Original Character(s)
Series: Feral Echoes [27]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1711534
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	Panzer

Caleb staggered down onto one knee. His hair was sweat slicked and clinging to his neck and forehead in blood colored ringlets.

The fire mage cursed softly in a slew of Zemnian, shifting until he was kneeling and sitting back on his heels. Caleb let his head fall back, sucking a few deep breaths, trying to slow his heart and ignore the hollow space opening up in his chest where he usually could feel his magic pooling. Now... now it was just an open maw...

He was completely tapped. 

The fire mage could hear the sounds of the fight still going on around him. The sound of blade hewing through muscle and bone, spattering of blood and slime. The screaming wail of dying monsters and the snarling battlecry of his companion.

Then silence. Ringing, echoing silence. The kind of musty, damp silences that only existed in the dugeonous ruins of deep caverns underground and in the Underdark. 

Caleb flinched at the soft sounds of some large creature moving towards him. A leather object gently nudged against his hand. 

"Caleb... water..." The soft rumble of the fighter coaxed. 

With fumbling fingers Caleb shakily took the water skin and sipped it at first before taking a few rushed gulps. Nearly choking before pulling the canteen away and taking a few gasps of musty air, now tinged with the corrosive scent of blood. 

The mage looked up towards Brunnera, the area around them lit by the daylight orb bobbing in the air above them. The bay roan firbolg’s ears were perked towards him in concern. His long cerulean blue hair was starting to come undone from a twisted ponytail. He was blood spattered and his fur sweat slicked. The warmth in the tunnels getting to the thick furred firbolg just as much as it was Caleb. 

It made sense. They had been winding their way through these tunnels and catacombs for hours at this point, slowly crawling their way upward as the rest of the Nein was slowly trying to find their way down to them. Jester had sent him a few messages, keeping them in contact through the slog to get back to each other.

How Caleb wished it had only been a simple pit trap they'd fallen into. Not some twisted and corrupted version of a teleportation rune. The mage felt a pang of guilt that he'd dragged Brunnera with him through the rune, he grabbed at the nearest person to try and save himself and the fighter had been at his side bringing up the rear as they worked their way through the maze of tunnels and corridors. Guilty yes though he was glad not to be alone. 

And now more than ever... now that he was... 

"Brunnera... I am useless to you. I am out of magic. I do not even have the energy for a cantrip..." He snapped his fingers and barely a few sparks crackled from his hands. "I am... dead weight."

Brunnera chuffed, squatting fully down next to Caleb, speaking softly on his broken afflicted speech. "... You are far... far stronger than... you allow yourself to believe..."

He reached into his bag of holding and drew out a large dagger, the leaf shaped blade almost long enough to be considered a short sword. He turned it so Caleb could see the soft blue, glowing rune hand etched into the blade. _Thutvli_. Caleb recognized the Storm Giant rune for lightening. The fighter turned the blade so the hilt was offered towards the mage. 

Caleb shied back a bit but the movement made him look around at the swath of corpses. Giant spiders and Ettercaps, spider-like humanoid beasts that had been cultivating the giant arachnids like cattle. This was not the first group of creatures they'd cut through to get this far. It likely wouldn't be the last either. 

He sighed and carefully took the knife, testing the weight in his hand and feeling the buzz and crackle of the rune in the weapon, lending just a bit of the strange, runic magic to him when he had nothing left. Caleb’s magic was arcane, this magic was older and more primeval. A flavor he wasn’t accustomed to. He turned the knife again to look at the blade one more time. 

A part of a young Volstrucker's training was physical combat. Caleb remembered handling knives and swords when it had been demanded of him; he'd always been poor at it. He'd had none of Astrid's swiftness or Edowulf's brute force. It had been where he'd failed when in every other wheelhouse he'd excelled, but he knew the basics well enough. 

Brunnera's gentle hand hooked under his arm and helped him up. The mage wobbled, slightly lightheaded without the pool of arcane energy in his being balancing him. Brunnera kept ahold of Caleb until he was steady before letting go. 

"You should just go on. I'd only slow you down. You'd find your way-"

Brunnera practically snorted in his face. "N-never leave... anyone behind... I may be able to... cut a path... but you're the one... of us that can... find one..."

Caleb heaved a deep sigh, then nodded and stayed close to the fighter's side as they started forwards. The daylight orb bobbing ahead of them as they walked, lighting the path and giving them away at the same time.

"How..." Caleb’s voice died on his lips but Brunnera's head tilted towards him expectantly, one ear cocked towards him to listen. 

Caleb chewed the edge of his lip, shifting the hilt of the knife in his grip a bit, the nail of his thumb scraping briefly on the edge of the leather wrapping. 

The fighter chuffed softly at him, urging him to speak. 

"How do you continue?" The mage managed to mumble, face flushing just a bit and feeling a little foolish. He'd have to blame exhaustion and lightheadedness later for anything he asked in the next few hours. 

Brunnera's head cocked, tilting much the way a dog or a bird might, confusion clear in his expression.

"When you are exhausted you carry on. I have seen it. You don't have the rage Yasha does or Fjord's resilience but... I have seen you be wounded far worse than any of the others before, but you have never gone down-"

Brunnera grumbled at him, "I h-have-"

"Not in the same way that I have. Or Caduceus. Or even Beau." Caleb sighed, " _Du bist ein Panzer. Mehr als alles, was ich jemals zuvor gesehen habe ..._."

Not even Edowulf... Caleb... _Bren_ had hero worshipped Edowulf's strength. Before Edowulf it had been his father, Leofric, that had been on the same pedestal. He'd always admired raw strength as a youth and now as an adult he felt the same envy. Towards Yasha, Jester, Beau and Brunnera.

The mage knew he had his own strengths, his own ways to protect his family and bring them success. It was one of those times that it felt as if those abilities were conditional and he had no reserves to fall back on. One of those times he was useless. 

"I will never possess the power that you or the others do..." Caleb muttered. "I do not know where to find such strength within myself."

Brunnera was quiet but the way his tail switched and twisted behind him it was clear he was thinking.

Then the fighter started to speak, slowly, filling the silence as they walked and wove their way through the tunnels. 

It took a moment for Caleb to realize that Brunnera was telling a story. The fighter often resorted to weaving some fanciful tail when he found it difficult to say outright what he meant. 

Brunnera's speech came of stilted and halting, the affliction of his mutism that came and went. He was having trouble with ‘h’s and ‘n’s today it seemed, some letters harder than others at time. Caleb and the rest of the Nein had long since learned the pattern and his own keen thoughts tightened the weave of the story together.

Later Caleb would be able to recite the story with clear precision to Jester as she recorded it into the ever growing book of Brunnera's tales.

_A peaceful valley was once home to many creatures of different kinds. They were cordial to one another, sometimes quarreled as neighbors do, but kept to themselves and shared no secrets among one another._

 _But as it was a day came that a storm drove a great monstrosity, a towering cyclops with a slobbering maw and hooked nails and a savage temper into the valley. The cyclops found the peaceful creatures to be easy pickings and set himself as the ruler of the valley. He demanded the creatures bring him sacrifice and dues. If the spoils were not enough or if it pleased him to do so, the cyclops roamed about the valley to steal away the children of the valley creatures and ate them whole and raw before their sires and dames._

_The creatures could not suffer the cyclops one moment more and came together in secret to declare war upon the cyclops. The biggest beasts of the valley creatures, a bull, an elk, a lion, a bear and a horse demanded they charge with all their strength at the cyclops. Most of the other valley creatures agreed._

 _But one of the smallest, a little wild cat spoke up, begging the rest of the valley creatures to listen. For all their strength among them, mighty beasts all bull, elk, lion, bear and horse, with the smaller beasts of the valley behind them they were still outmatched by the cyclops. The creatures of the valley declared if they must die in war then so be it, for what did a small cat know of strength?_

_The most ancient among them, a grizzled old goat known for her wisdom spoke loudly as she dared in their secret war meeting, that had not the whole of the valley see the cat hunt before and bring down prey much larger than itself despite not being a lion or leopard or some other large brute of great strength, all due to the wild cats cleverness and planning?_

_Heading the old goat's words the valley creatures listened as the wild cat gave them a plan._

_The next day the wild cat marched to the lair of the cyclops and called him outside for there was a great feast brought before him by all the valley beasts._

_The cyclops emerged to find in front of his den the mightiest of the valley creatures, the bull, elk, lion, bear and horse, all laid in the dirt as if dead._

_The wild cat called to the cyclops that if he fetched some rope the wild cat would tie all the sacrificed creatures together and that the cyclops could drag them all home at once and gorge himself._

_Greedy, the cyclops fetched the rope and returned. The rope was thick and heavy in looped coils, bigger than anything the wild cat had ever lifted or moved before and he struggled with it. For a moment truly afraid he was too weak to move the rope and their plan would fall to ruin. The wild cat refused to let them fail and digging deep within found the strength to move the rope. Swiftly as he was able the wild cat looped the rope about each of the valley beasts. Then, exhausted by the rope’s weight and nearly ready to fall carried the end back to the Cyclops. Again the wild cat pushed himself beyond his limits and before the villain could act the wild cat leapt about his legs and knotted the rope in place around the cyclops’ ankles and shouted for the valley creatures to rouse themselves and run before he collapsed exhausted._

_The bull, elk, lion, bear and horse jumped to their feet and lunged into the rope, pulling the cyclops off his feet. As one they pulled and set off at a gallop through the valley, dragging the cyclops behind. All along the valley the smaller beasts lashed out with claws and teeth and hooves as the cyclops was dragged by and by the time the mighty valley beasts had stopped pulling the cyclops had been cut to ribbons and lay dead._

 _The valley creatures rejoiced at their freedom and newfound companionship, forged in their war against the cyclops, and though he was not the strongest the creatures declared the wild cat their leader. For though he was small and thought weak by some his cleverness and a strength the wild cat hadn’t had before had toppled a giant._

Brunnera tilted his head, trying to catch Caleb’s eye, ears titled forwards as if asking if the mage had heard and understood. Caleb looked up at the fighter and smiled a bit, “I suppose I am the clever cat in your story?”

The bay roan and blue furred firbolg hummed a bit, “I was brought up… in… in a h-harsh world… to be strong always… always beyond… until failure… death… I h-h… have n-nothing else… your strength rests and waits… it’s there… do n-not doubt it… I continue because… I must… you continue because… you _can_ … and know that if it… ever failed… we would be there, too…”

Caleb mulled over the words, in his mind turning them over into a few different languages to try and examine it from all angles. Each way he looked at it Brunnera’s words made sense, even if he did not wholly believe them himself. 

The mage opened his mouth to speak but his voice was drowned out by the now all too familiar clicking and hissing of an Ettercap then the scuttling sounds of something large crawling along the walls. Brunnera dropped into a defensive stance, his double dao swords ready and still dripping from the last encounter. Caleb’s first instinct was to dig into his magic, even just a cantrip but he grasped at nothing. Just reaching for his expended reservoir sent a wave of nausea through him. The mage shook his head and breathed out, steadying his grip on the knife Brunnera had given him. He felt the faint crackle of _Thutvli_ ’s power ripple up his arm. 

The clicking and skittering filled his ears, drowning out the thundering of his own heart. He so rarely came this close to combat. 

“Do not let them… separate us…” Brunnera rumbled close to Caleb’s ear and shifted a bit until they were nearly touching. Caleb only nodded jerkily, swallowing hard as the first glimmers of a shiny carapace flickered at the edge of the daylight orb’s light. Brunnera was never one shy from charging to meet an opponent but he stayed at Caleb’s side, turning the narrow corridor around them into a bottleneck. When they come Brunnera's reach is far longer than Caleb’s and he cuts down the Ettercaps and spiders, crackles of the blue tinted lightening sears along the walls and the scent of ozone and scorched flesh floods the tunnels. When a spider lunges at him Caleb lashes out instinctively, clumsily hacking at the largest part of its head and body, more of the lightening crackles through the knife and the spider falls, its legs curling in death. 

Brunnera’s bark of approval and encouragement steadies Caleb’s hand and at the next spider he slashes with more confidence, his coat and skin spatters with blood and the heaviness in his limbs and body fades in the flurry of the lightening charged blade, letting his muscles follow designs and tracks he had only observed in others and mimicked from the firbolg next to him. 

The fight was a blur, his arms and back burned as he buried the long knife into more spiders so that the rattling corpses piled around him with Brunnera’s. An Ettercap reared up in front of him and Caleb didn’t hesitate to bury the blade into the creature’s chest, electricity charging through and making its body arch and scream. Caleb tried to yank the blade free but it was firmly wedged in the creature’s ribs. The Ettercap’s clawed hand reared back but it stalled with a scream cut short as Brunnera’s sword lopped its head off and sent it rolling into the pile of corpses.

Silence filled the space again, Caleb shaking a little and unable to hear Brunnera speaking over his own harsh panting. He was soaked in spider blood and drenched in sweat, lightheaded but standing. And his hand still wrapped tightly around the hilt of the knife where it was wedged in the Ettercap’s ribs. 

A large hand gently wrapped around his wrist and hand, encouraging him to turn the blade, breaking it free and letting the corpse fall with a thud to the earth. The same large hand settled on his back and Caleb found himself leaning back, taking the support as he caught his breath. The mage gave himself a shake and looked up towards Brunnera. The firbolg rumbled softly, ears switching as he waited for Caleb to speak.

“May I keep this? _Bitte?_ ” The mage asked a bit breathlessly, giving the blade a little wave. Brunnera gave a little half smile and then nodded in approval. Caleb’s head bobbed a bit, still mimicking. “ _Danke_.”

“We h-have a ways… to go… ready?” The firbolg rumbled. 

Caleb nodded, “We can’t be far from the others now. Lets continue…”

**Author's Note:**

> How about a bit of the good ol' fashioned dungeon crawling and a little self-inflection? And spider killin' of course. Lookit these two fellas bonding. 
> 
> I do know that cantrips can be used even after all your spell slots are burned but its a little more dramatic if Caleb used "all" his magic. 
> 
> Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed


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